Top Ten Tips for Legal Power Users
Editor's note: We asked Microsoft Corp. and Corel Corp. to pick the 10 best features, for legal users, of word processing software in their new 2000 Suites. Here's their lists!
By Brent Winsor
WORDPERFECT 9 is the word processing application in the latest version of Corel's legal-specific office suite, WordPerfect Law Office 2000.
1. The Legal Toolbar
This toolbar takes all of the legal-specific features in WordPerfect 9 and puts them right at your fingertips. It includes all the features that legal users would need on a regular basis, so that all they have to do is point and click to use them. The toolbar includes several third party applications, such as DEAL PROOF SE (See tip #8). Lawyers also can insert paragraph numbering and create a pleading document from the Legal Toolbar.
2. Reveal Codes
WordPerfect 9 offers "Reveal Codes," which control formatting of documents, right down to the character level. Reveal Codes work in this way: each time the WordPerfect application is used, codes are inserted into a document. For example, when a user makes text bold, codes surround that text to make it bold. With Reveal Codes, users can display a window that shows which codes have been inserted into a document and change those codes to edit and reformat the document. This increases the speed and efficiency in editing legal documents which are typically rich in complex formats and features.
3. Publishing to PDF
WordPerfect 9 now allows users to publish documents to the PDF format. Law firms can create a document in WordPerfect and convert it to PDF format with everything intact - the line and page endings will be exactly the same as they were in the WordPerfect document.
This enables law firms and their clients to easily and reliably exchange and view electronic documents, independent of the environment in which they were created. In addition, many court systems throughout North America are requiring that documents filed electronically are submitted in PDF format.
4. Tables Feature
Users can create complex tables in WordPerfect 9, which is especially helpful to illustrate financial information. The tables feature allows lawyers to run automatic number formatting, which can be used to include currency symbols and comma separators to format numbers within the table.
You also can underline numbers in the WordPerfect table and can lock the different sections within the table so that the alignment, data, logos and row height will not change.
5. Printer Metrics
WordPerfect defines where a line will end in a document through printer metrics. When printing a document from different printers, users can prevent the document from reformatting each time a different printer is used by disabling the printer metrics. That guarantees that one document will be printed the same on different printers, regardless of the make or model.
This option is important to users who need to print documents that will always appear the same, right down to the line and page endings.
6. Table of Authorities
WestCiteLink 2.2, which can be accessed from the legal toolbar, quickly finds and marks legal citations within a WordPerfect 9 document, and automatically generates "Tables of Authorities."
This allows users to search for citations within footnotes and endnotes.
7. Footnotes
When a user is inserting footnotes into a document, WordPerfect 9 will automatically increment characters such as asterisks or numbers.
For example, if an asterisk is used to mark a footnote, the next time a footnote is created, two asterisks will automatically mark that footnote -- and so on. This tool eliminates the need for a user to manually update the number of characters or verify that all footnote characters are accurate each time they edit a document.
8. Automated Proofreading
Automated proofreading has been added to WordPerfect 9 with the addition of DEAL PROOF SE. This application is designed to help legal users edit and proofread complex legal documents.
It reduces time spent proofreading complex transactional legal documents by identifying non-conforming phrases and marking errors and inconsistencies within a WordPerfect 9 document.
9. Multiple-Page Clipboards
NexLaw 9 is a third-party application that supplements the menus and toolbars in the WordPerfect 9 application in WordPerfect Law Office 2000.
One of the key tools in NexLaw 9 is Multiple-Page Clipboards, which allow users to save text, formatted codes and graphics for later use.
The Clipboard is the tool that you use to copy text onto so that you can paste it into a document. Multiple-Page Clipboards simply means that users now have an unlimited number of clipboards that can be stored, reused repeatedly and shared with others.
10. Compatibility
WordPerfect 9 has impressive third-party integration and compatibility with other word processors.
WordPerfect 9 also provides many levels of compatibility - first, with older versions of WordPerfect; second, with other products on the market, including Microsoft Office 97.
This means that the legal user can create a document in WordPerfect, save it in Microsoft Word 97 format and send it to a client who uses Microsoft Word, who can then open it up and read it.
Brent Winsor is the brand manager for WordPerfect Legal at Corel Corporation, based in Ottawa, Canada.
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